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Human Security and the UN: A Critical History
Category: Human Security
S. Neil MacFarlane , Yuen Foong Khong
After providing a thorough analysis of the history and nature of the human security movement, MacFarlane and Khong argue for a definition of human security as freedom from organized violence. Under this narrow definition, “humans are insecure insofar as they are in danger of being injured, maimed, or killed by those who organize to harm them.” (245) This approach would count the following among the threats to human security: genocide, internal/civil wars, terrorist attacks, and the laying of land minds. (250) While the authors acknowledge that environmental degradation, unemployment, and infectious diseases are important causes of human misery that require the deployment of significant resources to prevent and eliminate them, they believe it is a mistake to make these issues security issues. In their opinion, to do so complicates the process of prioritizing the more deadly threats to human beings. (253)
MacFarlane, S. Neil and Khong, Yuen, "Human Security and the UN: A Critical History" (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006)
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